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Bristol starts its year as European Green Capital with a spectacular high wire stunt and opening ceremony this weekend that will symbolise the difference between good intentions and actions in sustainable living.

Led by Bristol-based company Cirque Bijou, Bridging The Gap will see world-famous tight wire artist Jade Kindar-Martin cycle across a 120 metre-long wire set between two landmark buildings in the Hotwells area of the city.  Hollywood stuntwoman Karine Mauffrey will perform a dramatic aerial trapeze routine suspended beneath the bicycle, 27 metres above the ground.

Set against the backdrop of the city, the piece will represent the bridge we all need to cross to start living more sustainably.  The event will open with a light projection show using the warehouse building as a canvas, accompanied by a musical score specially composed by Dom Coyote.

Arts Council England has made an Exceptional Award of £744,564 to Bristol 2015 for an extraordinary arts programme that will play a central role in helping to make sustainable living accessible and easy to understand, one of the core aims for the year.   National portfolio organisation Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (BCDP) will deliver the programme which is built around six major projects.  These include:

Withdrawn by Luke Jerram (opens 17 April)

Withdrawn is an artwork created by artist Luke Jerram in collaboration with Trust New Art Bristol and the National Trust.  The team will be collaborating with climate change academics from the University of Bristol and National Trust Ecologists, who will use this artwork to promote their research and discussion around the issues of climate change.  Luke invites visitors to Leigh Woods to experience an unexpected encounter with a flotilla of fishing boats installed in the depths of the woodland.  This thought-provoking and engaging installation raises discussion about climate change, extreme weather, changing ocean temperatures, falling fish stocks and our impact on the marine environment.

TIME AND SPACE: a major new exhibition of work by Richard Long (31 July - 15 November)

Arnolfini Centre for Contemporary Arts, an Arts Council National portfolio organisation is presenting this exhibition by leading artist Richard Long, which includes several new works and recreations of previous works, and will be accompanied by a new publication.  Richard Long was born in Bristol, where he continues to live and work and this will be the most comprehensive exhibition by the artist in his home city since 2000.  Richard Long is considered to be among the most important artists of his generation. He won the Turner Prize in 1989 and represented Great Britain at the 37th Venice Biennale in 1976. He was awarded Japan's Praemium Imperiale in the field of sculpture (2009) and was made a CBE in 2013.

The work is born out of Richard's engagement with the landscape and through the experience of making solitary walks in rural or remote areas of Britain, and as far afield as Alaska, Mongolia and Bolivia.  Walking is central to the artist's work, which he uses as a way to articulate ideas about time and space and natural materials.

The Bristol Blue Whale (opens July)

Led by Herbert Girardet, Kenny Young, and Artists Project Earth, a life-size 'sculpture' of the tail of a Blue Whale will appear in Bristol Harbourside, presenting the beauty of ocean life, and the growing human threats to it.  It will be made of wicker, with a sea created from plastic bottles into which people may be able to post messages.  Local artists Cod Steaks will create the sculpture and community arts, environmental and digital arts organisations will be invited to create images and video sequences to convey emotive journeys through magical undersea worlds on nearby screens. The whale is expected to feature the work of Boyan Slat and his Marine Litter Extraction Project, illustrating some of the huge challenges to undo the damage humanity is inflicting on the oceans.

Theaster Gates

National portfolio organisation Situations are producing Theaster Gates' first UK public project for Bristol 2015.  One of the most sought-after American artists of his generation, Theaster Gates' project will remain secret until summer 2015, and promises to draw significantly on the artist's ability to breathe new life into discarded materials and forgotten places.  Theaster Gates is an artist, musician and activist based in Chicago. His most acclaimed work, Dorchester Projects, began in 2009 with Gates transforming a cluster of buildings on Chicago's South Side into alternative cultural spaces including a library, slide archive, screening room and performance space. Recently nominated for the British Artes Mundi Prize, Gates uses his experience of living, working and transforming Chicago's South Side to act in other cities and situations, often displacing materials and skills from one place to another.

Festival of the Future City

A year-long programme of work and the largest debate ever about the future of the city, bringing together thinkers, writers, artists, think tanks, governments and the public. The festival will look at the future sustainable, resilient city, and aspects of city life, creating, working, educating, playing and developing.  It will culminate in a three-day festival in autumn 2015 featuring a major series of events including artist commissions examining English cities of today through classic city thinkers (Walter Benjamin, Jane Jacobs, Ian Nairn, Cedric Price, J G Ballard, among others) and keynote presentations by leading architects, writers, artists, economists, city managers.

The prestigious European Green Capital award was launched in 2010 by the European Commission to promote and reward the efforts of cities to improve the environment.   All recipients of the award have a consistent record of achieving high environmental standards; are committed to on-going and ambitious goals for further environmental improvement and sustainable development; and can act as role models to inspire other cities and promote best practices to all other European cities.

Bristol is the first ever UK city to win the award, which recognises Bristol's high environmental performance, ambitious goals for sustainable development and work as a role model to inspire other cities.

2015 is a pivotal global moment for sustainability with the UN Conference on Climate Change hosted in Paris at the end of the year. As the only city in the world with an official and significant 'green' title in 2015, Bristol will become the epicentre for global discussion and debate. This debate will highlight the fundamental role that cities, citizens and businesses play in testing and implementing solutions for sustainable living.

Find more information about Exceptional awards here and Bristol 2015 here.